In early August of 1977....late into the evening, our bus from the San Antonio airport had pulled up to Lackland AFB for boot-camp. It was one of those moments that you kinda remember. SPs at the gate getting the Ok by the military guy escorting us (forty of us on the bus) to enter. The gate-guards? All armed with a pistol. There was a sign or two, but you couldn't make that out (too small of font).
As the months and years went by, you got use to the gate procedure, and eventually one day....I stood close enough to the stupid signs to read them. You actually need to be within eight feet to read the small font. It basically says there's significant security on this military reservation, and either 'force' or 'deadly force' is then uttered.
It's hard to say if there's any difference between 'force' and 'deadly force'. Either way, Airman Cindy has a pistol.
After 9-11, all that 'deadly force' stuff ramped-up and the guards all started to hold M-16s and if you did something really stupid....you were going to be shot dead. Along the way, they installed the flip-barriers, which take around two seconds to come up enough to stop all vehicles.
So this 'accident' at Warner-Robins AFB, Georgia on Friday evening interests me. Some car speeds through.....never showing an ID, and the SP guard hits the button for the barrier to pop-up. With the high speed of the car, and impact....two guys are immediately dead and the third will die at the hospital. Oddly, all three lacked an ID, and two days after the accident.....no one apparently knows the ID of the three. Teenagers on the run? Maybe, just a bit odd.
Failure to read that stupid sign business at the front-gate? Well....maybe if they'd read the sign and realized that Airman Jimmy wouldn't hesitate to hit the button, or shoot-out the car, all three would be alive today.
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